-Gosh, liberal hacks and ultraleftists agreeing with each other. What a surprise. -Who was it that said an anarchist is just a liberal with a bomb?
How about "just a democrat with a bomb" (usually non-lethal) -- Chuck and I disagree on tactics and the best process to assure democracy in the movement -- a good standard debate between anarchists and democratic socialists -- but what we share is a commitment to democracy as a prime value of leftism.
I am not a process freak but the idea that a healthy movement can be built around a leadership of WWP fascist worshippers is just bizarre for anyone with such democratic commitments. To trade off the moral democratic credentials of the left because the WWP are efficient short-term organizers of rallies is the crudest utilitarianism.
So what if rallies might be smaller in the short-term if we shunned the WWP? We don't need just numbers but a credible moral engagement with the American people. The WWP has no ability to lead the latter; in fact, they undermine it.
I continue to denigrate the Vietnam War movement because that was when the fetishism of numbers at rallies seems to be rooted. Where Chuck and I fully agree is that it is the quality, creativity and targetted strategy involved in actions, not their raw numbers, that matter far more. Read Alinsky's god damn Rules for Radicals--- he doesn't have a lot of raw ideological answers but on what makes a good action, he has the goods. You need a strategy and you need creativity. WWP-led rallies have neither.
== Nathan Newman